Huntington CEO ‘Banker of Year’

American Banker, one of the industry’s premier trade publications, has named Stephen Steinour, CEO of Huntington National Bank, its “Banker of the Year.”

Steinour was featured in an extensive story published Wednesday. The story chronicled Steinour’s guidance during a credit crisis after the bank first acquired Sky Financial and the company’s sustained push to grow its market share across a six-state footprint while extending its lending operations at the same time.

Huntington has been on a positive spree as of late.

The Mahoning Valley’s No. 1 bank by deposits and Ohio’s second-largest by the same measure, it boasts $56 billion in assets, earning accolades from J.D. Power and Associates and Bank Director Magazine in recent months.

With retail banking programs such as its “fair-play banking” initiative, which provides a 24-hour grace period and asterisk-free checking that helps consumers avoid overdraft fees, the bank has added roughly 250,000 household checking accounts in the past three years.

In October, Huntington again was named the No. 3 lender in the nation by the U.S. Small Business Administration and No. 1 among Midwest states for the number and dollar amount of SBA loans provided to small businesses.

During the same month, the company announced it would hire 250 employees across Ohio to help support a new credit-card program.

Steinour also has been a staunch opponent of federal regulations, advocating for an industry that claims certain regulatory complexities are hurting both large and small banks.

Steinour took the helm at Huntington in 2009, with what American Banker reported in its profile was an aggressive strategy to transform Huntington into the Midwest’s leading retail bank.

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